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There are 2 results of your search for cat's eye1.

cat's eye1


noun
a. a low-growing plant (Emex australis) having many hard, sharp, spiny seeds that are extremely painful to step on and which will sometimes even puncture through shoe soles.
b. one of these seeds. Compare bullhead, California puncture weed, caltrop, cat head, double-gee, goat's head, three-corner jack.
Editor's comments: The term 'cat's eyes' for road reflectors in standard English and not a regionalism. Is there anybody who has ever called those pointy burrs that stick painfully into your bare feet a cat's eye?

Contributor's comments: I lived in this region of NSW for the first 20yrs of my life and never heard this expression used this way. To me 'cats eyes' when not attached to a cat refer to the the reflective disks used to show lane and direction divisions in the road. They are called this because they are reflective to headlights just like cat's eyes.

Contributor's comments: I grew up in Sydney in the 1970s and knew of a cat's eye as the operculum of certain sea shells.

Contributor's comments: Growing up in Wagga Wagga in the late 60's - 70's 'cat's eyes' were reflectors used on roads, guideposts etc.

Contributor's comments: Like the second comment, catseyes have always meant the reflective disks on the side of the road.

Contributor's comments: In Tasmania, 'cats eyes' when not attached to a cat refer to the the reflective disks used to show lane and direction divisions in the road. They are called this because they are reflective to headlights just like cat's eyes.

Contributor's comments: In Brisbane the term is used to describe road refectors your other correspondent refers to.

cat's eye2


noun a type of marble resembling a cat's eye. Also, cat eye marble.

Contributor's comments: A cat's eye when I was growing up in ACT was a marble - or type of marble when playing dibs (marbles).

Contributor's comments: My memory of Cat Eyes - We were very proud to own a cat eye marble when we attended primary here at the back o' Bourke.